Article by Larry Jock
Can you believe that in a couple of days it will be September? This summer has really flown by and I truly feel that, outside the bigeye bite, the best fishing has yet to come.
Mid-Atlantic $500,000
The MA500 ended last Friday, and once again a boat fishing out of Sunset Marina took home the 1st place award in the Heaviest White Marlin Division.
This year, 117 boats fished in the tournament with 59 of those heading out of slips in Ocean City, 11 more than last year. This was the first time in tournament history that more boats fished out of Ocean City than out of Cape May.
As far as action is concerned, it wasn’t one of the more exciting tournaments in pure numbers, but some nice fish definitely hit the scales at both weigh-in locations. Bad weather kept the vast majority of boats at the dock on Monday, but local charter boat, “Reel Chaos” headed out to the Washington Canyon and returned with the only qualifying fish weighed at Sunset Marina on day 1, a 134 lb. bigeye, good enough to jump into 1st place in the Tuna Division.
The second day of the tournament was definitely the most exciting. The 3rd boat to arrive at the scale at Sunset Marina was the “Lights Out” with a 73-inch, 84 lb. white marlin which ended the tournament in 1st place in the White Marlin Division. The fish was caught in the Norfolk Canyon, where almost the entire fleet fished on Tuesday, and took almost 2 hours to get to the boat.
Right after “Lights Out” left the scale, the “Plane Simple” arrived with a 203 lb. bigeye caught on a 30-wide outfit in the Washington Canyon. The fish ended the tournament in 3rd place in the Tuna Division. Ironically, the same thing happened to the “Plane Simple” team in the White Marlin Open, where a large bigeye hit one of their lighter rods targeted for white marlin. This bigeye took over 2 hours to get into the boat.
A couple of boats after the “Plane Simple” was the “A-1-A” with a 38 lb. dolphin that ended up winning the Dolphin Division. The “MJ’s” arrived a short time later with a 213 lb. bigeye from the Washington Canyon that took 2nd place in the Tuna Division.
The 3rd day was pretty much a bust out of Ocean City, but came alive on Day 4 when the “No Quarter” weighed a pair of bigeyes hooked on green machines in the Washington Canyon, to temporarily hold onto 3rd place in the Tuna Division. Although it didn’t place in the tournament, Ginny Rodriguez was the last angler to hit the scales, weighing a nice 95 lb. yellowfin caught while trolling in the Washington Canyon.
The final day started with great expectations, since Ocean City has been known to make big moves on Day 5. Almost all the boats out of Cape May and 31 boats out of Ocean City hit the seas. “Moore Bills” was the first to arrive with a qualifying fish, weighing a 165 lb. bigeye tuna, caught on a skirted, rubber ballyhoo around the 800/800 where they also boated 4 yellowfins. The only other qualifying fish on the final day was weighed by the “Sea Slammer”, when they arrived with a 71-inch, 69 lb. white marlin caught in the Norfolk Canyon. Although they didn’t have a white marlin that cracked the top three in the Weight Divisions, they still had a heckuva tournament, winning the prestigious Overall Points award with 10 white marlin released in addition to their 69 pounder. Big congratulations go out to the “Sea Slammer” crew!
In the past couple of years, Ocean City boats took home over 90% of the winnings. Although that didn’t happen this year, our anglers still made a tremendous showing and did us proud!
Marlin
With most of the marlin action coming in the tournament, boats headed to the Norfolk Canyon for the better part of the week. Some others headed out to 1,500 fathoms outside the Washington with limited results. The “Wound Up” had everyone talking about the great days they have had live-baiting in the Norfolk Canyon. I heard that the guys had been bottomfishing for grouper and tilefish when they noticed that white marlin were following their grouper to the surface. The next thing they knew, they were live baiting small grouper and tearing up the white marlin. So far they have had a tremendous year and the good bite hasn’t even started yet. Stay tuned!
On a side note, there were rumors of white marlin sightings at the Hot Dog last week. I haven’t been able to confirm any releases as of yet, but wanted to pass it along nevertheless.
Tuna
The bigeye bite in the Washington Canyon (800/800) continues to be beyond belief, with eyeballs still being found feeding on squid around the whales. Commercial squid boats were ready to pound the area on Friday, so we will have to see what happens this week.
Yellowfin tuna are scattered with bites coming in from the Norfolk Canyon up to the Tea Cup. With most boats fishing in the tournament last week, greenstickers didn’t have a chance to dance their baits on top of the water, but they should be back in action this week.
Flounder
All I can say about the flounder bite is that if you have a boat, or know someone who has a boat, do whatever you can to head out the Ocean City Inlet and hit some ocean structure. The bite is nothing short of spectacular! That’s not to say that fish aren’t being caught in the bay, because they are. The MSSA Flounder Tournament was held on Saturday and the top three fish weighed between 4.8 lbs. and 6.95 lbs. Nice fish! The winning flounder was caught on a live spot in the West Channel. Most of the others were caught in the East Channel.
It was also great to hear enthusiasm coming from anglers fishing off the Rt. 50 Bridge who raved about the number of flounder they were catching. On Sunday, Jim Lutz of West Ocean City came to the office to have his picture taken with the 5 lb. 7 oz. flattie he caught on a Gotcha plug at the beginning of the incoming tide.
The ocean bite is the one everyone is talking about. One day last week, the head boats “Morning Star” and “Angler” returned to port with 92 and 80 keepers, respectively. That is some incredible flounder fishing. Anglers who are fishing at the Old Grounds and at the African Queen have had some great days with anglers telling me that you didn’t even have to be on the wreck to hook-up with nice fish. Everywhere they were drifting with live minnows and squid seemed to result in fish landing in coolers.
At the African Queen, the “Jezebel” had a great day on Friday, catching their limit of 28 flounder and then deploying rigs with smaller hooks to entice 13 triggerfish.
If you didn’t feel like running out so far, structure close to the beach, such as Purnell’s Reef, also produced catches of flounder and a few triggerfish.
Red Drum
Anglers continue to pick up red puppy drum around the Rt. 50 Bridge. I know Big Bird Cropper and “Neighbor Dave” Leizear have been pecking at them all season, and continue to do so while tossing their famous Roy Rigs at the pilings.
Striped Bass
Capt. Doug Maguire on “Skip’s Charter and Guide Service” called during the week to report that the striper bite around the South Jetty heated up again after a couple week’s hiatus. Most of the linesiders are too small to keep, but if you put your time in you can leave with a couple of keepers in your cooler. Live spot and mullet are the baits of choice, but 6-inch, Gulp! Swimming Mullets can also fool a keeper now and again.
In the Surf
Anglers fishing off the beach have seen a rise in water temperatures and an increase in snapper bluefish action. Most of time surfcasters are dealing with the typical summer menu of kingfish, spot, small sharks, skates and rays.
Upcoming Tournament
The next tournament on the schedule is the 55th Annual Ocean City Marlin Club Labor Day White Marlin Tournament. Weigh-ins will be held August 30th to September 1st at Sunset Marina from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM. You do not have to be a member of the Ocean City Marlin Club to participate in this tournament.
See you at the scales!
